Page%1%of%11% % Fountain,%Flanderic%Infixation,%2009%%%Flanderic Infixation and the Prosodic Constituency of English Words Amy Fountain* Prosody Seminar, 11/4/2009 1. Background 1.1 Infixation Generally At least since the early 1980s infixation has played a key role in the exploration of prosodic structures of words. A strong claim has been made that the locus of infixation is always calculable in terms of ‘genuine units of prosody’; and a typology of infixation has emerged such that there exist ‘edge-oriented’ and ‘prominence-oriented’ infixial processes (cf. Yu 2003). ‘Compensatory reduplication’ (Yu 2004, Inkelas 2005, Inkelas and Zoll 2005) proposed as an account of reduplication that occurs as a mechanism of ‘phonological repair’, often in the context of infixation. Lots of specific theoretical claims have been advanced, which I won’t address. 1.2 Infixation in English 1.2.1 Expletive Infixation (EI) McCarthy 1982; Hammond 1991, 1999: Expletive infixation occurs at some (but not all) foot boundaries in English words. (1) Possible and Impossible contexts for Expletive Infixation in English (Hammond 2009) [ca!li]…[fo"rnia] [a!ppa]….[la!tcha]…[co"la] [sa!r]…[di"ne] *[te!…ne][se"e] (must be at a foot boundary) *[cu"] …[cu!mber] (must have the primary to the right) *ba..[na"na] (must have a well-formed foot on each side) %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%*%Thanks%to%Shannon%Bischoff,%Mans%Hulden,%Mike%Hamm ond,%Diane%Ohala, %And y%Wedel,%Adam%Ussishkin,%Dainon%Woudstra%for%helpfu l%discussions%about%this%topic,%all%er rors% are%my%own.%Page%2%of%11% % Fountain,%Flanderic%Infixation,%2009%%%Expletive Infixation occurs between foot boundaries such that the main stress is to the right of the infix; and there is well-formed foot on either side. 1.2.2. Homeric Infixation (HI) Yu (2003, 2004) describes a pattern of infixation attributable to Homer Simpson. The infix is –ma-. (2) Homeric Infixation Examples (from Yu, 2004) Homeric Infixation occurs “after a disyllabic foot, and before a syllable.” In deficient bases, ‘compensatory reduplication’ (of a Cә syllable) occurs. 1.2.3 [ɪz] Infixation (IzI) Viau (2006), via a corpus study of rap lyrics, finds an infix [Iz]. IzI is not found in a large number of words longer than two syllables. (3) [ɪz] Infixation Examples (from Viau 2006) IzI targets the stressed syllable of a word. If the word is right-headed, IzI induces stress-shift, such that stress lands on the penult. Left-headed disyllables also (retain) penultimate stress.Page%3%of%11% % Fountain,%Flanderic%Infixation,%2009%%%2. Flanderic Infixation (FI) Flanderic Infixation is a pattern originating with a character named Ned Flanders in the television show “The Simpsons”. Ned inserts a nonce element, ‘diddily’, into words as an index of friendliness, neighborliness, nervousness or other (ineffable) feelings. We begin with a ‘corpus’ of instances of FI as it was produced on the show. (4) Selected FI examples from “The Simpsons” The corpus is useful as a training algorithm but not our primary interest. We examine FI because it seems to be a pattern that quickly becomes productive for English speakers. Our interest is in the patterns found among English speakers when they extrapolate this pattern onto words that are not in the corpus. 2.1. Data generation Please diddily-infix the following words, note your responses, and we’ll compare with the preliminary findings (and advance them!) Eye Thump Predict Big Health Pristine Bake Blinks Oppose Buff Strengths Canada Bail Cactus Cucumber Brown Alpine Timbuktu Cute Raccoon Cantankerous Grudge Tiger AppalachicolaPage%4%of%11% % Fountain,%Flanderic%Infixation,%2009%%%2.2 Data Patterns 2.2.1. Monosyllables. The patterns we’ve found in monosyllables are reproduced below. (5) Monosyllables Generalizations: • All speakers reduplicate some portion of the syllable rhyme (but never the onset), and insert the infix between the two instances of the rhyme. • Primary stress surfaces to the right of the infix (as with EI). • Ssecondary stress surfaces to the left of the infix (as with EI, there is a foot on each side of the infix). • Treatment of coda consonants varies according to speaker. o Some speakers delete a singleton coda from the left edge of the infix, others do not.Page%5%of%11% % Fountain,%Flanderic%Infixation,%2009%%%o For complex codas, some speakers deleted (some or all of the) the rightmost element(s) from the cluster on the left edge; with inner-most sonorants most always retained (though vowel quality is not well-controlled in these items). 2.1.2. Disyllables (6) Left-headed disyllables Generalizations • The data in (a) show that monopodal disyllables are treated just like monosyllables. • In (b) we see that some of our speakers change their strategy for bipodal disyllables – they insert the infix at the foot boundary, and they do not reduplicate.Page%6%of%11% % Fountain,%Flanderic%Infixation,%2009%%% (7) Right-headed disyllables Generalizations • There are no exhaustively footed monopodal right-headed disyllables in English. So all the words in this set have unfooted elements or are parsed into two feet. • Set (a) o When the initial syllable is unfooted, but is underlyingly [i], speakers foot it (and it is tensed/stressed). • Set (c) o When the initial syllable is unfooted, but is not underlyingly [i], speakers may either foot it and infix without reduplication, or o They fail to foot it, and they reduplicate the rhyme of the stressed syllable – in which they place the infix. • Set (b) o Then the initial syllable is a foot, speakers infix at the word-internal foot boundary, and do not reduplicate.Page%7%of%11% % Fountain,%Flanderic%Infixation,%2009%%%A note: FI seems to be most felicitous in short words, not long ones. This is one if its principle distinctions from EI, but is apparently parallel with HI and II. 2.2 Interim conclusions: In summary, infixed words always surface with a primary stress to the right and a secondary stress to the left of the infix under FI. This implies, of course, that on the surface infixed words incorporate a foot to the left and a foot to the right of the infix (which is itself a foot). The appropriate output shape can be acheived either by situating the infix at an appropriate